LEF Scholarship for Girls

1.6 million girls aged 11 to 14 years are currently out of school in India, according to a Right to Education Forum policy brief released on January 24, 2021. With COVID-19 increasing the financial strain on families, 10 million girls run the risk of dropping out of secondary school, putting them at risk of early marriage, early pregnancy, poverty, trafficking and violence.

The LEF Scholarship for Girls aims to reduce the drop-out rate of girls from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. This will be done by providing financial aid to the keep girls enrolled through classes VIII, IX and X. Preference will be given to girls residing in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh - states where the drop out rate has been observed to be the highest. To effectively implement the scholarship program, Live Equal Foundation has entered into a strategic partnership with NSDL e-Gov (now called Protean). The scholarship will be available on and managed via Vidyasaarathi - a tech platform for applying to various scholarships. The Identification, verification and authentication of eligible students will be carried out in partnership with the NSDL team. A scholarship grant of INR 5,000 per student per annum will be provided to the selected candidates. The aim is to impact 200 girls with this effort in year one.

The desired impact is to ensure that the girls continue their education without interruption.